Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

[pilot error]

Last night I revisited this old favorite classic on TCM. You never saw so many A2 jackets! But upon closer examination most of them weren't originals. They have a 2 piece back shoulder yoke, and if you look at the guys flanking Van Johnson they have 2 bottom snaps in front. This picture was made and released in 1944. MGM had enough pull to get 3 B-25's to use, you'd think they could requisition some jackets. MGM's power and resources were legendary, and they spared no expense. I think they measured the actors and custom fitted many of them.

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[TXFlyGuy]

Accurate or not, authentic or not, I doubt that many viewers would ever see (or care about) the difference. Still, good looking jackets!

 

[thor]

Great movie! By 1944 the USAAF had transitioned to issuing the cloth B-10 and B-15 jackets so perhaps stocks of leather A-2's were quite sparse? It may have been easier to get the actors of the movie custom-made civilian A-2 "clone" jackets. I believe that they used later model C and D bombers which weren't exactly the same as the model B used on the Doolittle Raid. But why quibble? It's a fantastic movie and a compelling story.

 

[Worf]

Yeah I watched it again last night. Forget the jackets, I loved the Squadron and Unit Patches. All that was pretty sweet if'n you ask me. Didn't need the various love stories either. Loved the Army/Navy camaraderie for a change instead of trying to beat each other's brains in. Also loved a VERY young Bob Mitchum as one of the pilots. Outstanding!

Worf

 

[Deleted member 16736]

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is one of my favorite movies, and was written by one of my favorite writers, Dalton Trumbo. He was blacklisted in the 1950's and STILL won an Oscar for best story (The Brave One) using a pseudonym! His autobiography is wonderful, too. He once wrote a letter to his daughter when she was going off to college and gave her this fatherly advice: "The character of a man is determined by what he does, and of a woman by what she doesn't." His daughter, Nikola, dated Steve Martin and he tells some funny stories about meeting Trumbo, who was quite a character in his own right. Finally, Trumbo's novel "Johnny Got His Gun" is probably the best anti-war novel ever written. It shakes me to this day.

 

[Juanito]

My $0.02...I also find it odd that something as common as a set of USMC P41 utilities during WW2 would be made by the costume shop as opposed to just getting it used or "surplus," or simply given to the studio.

Oddly, a guy I grew up with (and we're from the backwoods of Oregon) ended up working in the film industry is design work and I asked him about that. As the OP stated, most costumes are tailor made for the actors (think of Sands of Iwo Jima), and then were either sold or given to Hollywood costume shops; then rented out in "lesser" movies, i.e Battle Cry. I have a few sets of these, with the costume shop's names in them as well as original issue items.

The think that is striking is how well the costume items are made, in fact much better than the originals in many cases, and also in most cases how close they are in appearance to the originals. Yes, snaps on the lower flap of a A-2 and P41s without USMC donut buttons border on sacrilege but like a battle worn A-2, a documented, set worn, costume is sometimes even more valuable to "that" collector.

 

[emigran]

One o my favorite recollections of reading when I was 10 or so was that novel...

 

[pilot error]

Sat 6:00 am. Est. TCM


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[w126c]

Thank you sir, set to record. I tried to pull it off YouTube a few weeks ago, but it's not available.

 

[bn1966]

Thanks Pilot Error...have just snagged myself a copy from eBay, I wasn't aware of this film before this post

 

[pawineguy]

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is one of my favorite movies, and was written by one of my favorite writers, Dalton Trumbo. He was blacklisted in the 1950's and STILL won an Oscar for best story (The Brave One) using a pseudonym! His autobiography is wonderful, too. He once wrote a letter to his daughter when she was going off to college and gave her this fatherly advice: "The character of a man is determined by what he does, and of a woman by what she doesn't." His daughter, Nikola, dated Steve Martin and he tells some funny stories about meeting Trumbo, who was quite a character in his own right. Finally, Trumbo's novel "Johnny Got His Gun" is probably the best anti-war novel ever written. It shakes me to this day.

Trumbo was certainly quite the character, and I do give him credit for stating late in his life that there was good and bad on both sides of the blacklisting. His decision to stop publication of Johnny Got His Gun when the Germans broke their pact with Stalin wasn't his finest moment. There is no doubt that he was immensely talented.

 

[handymike]

it's set to record!
Thanks for the head's up.

 

[Vespizzare]

If anybody wants to see guys in A2's, go to YouTube. Just for fun I like watching the WW2 Army Air Force training films. And it's very interesting to see up close how the planes were operated. I doubt that I'll be doing much dive bombing in the near future; but if I have to, at least I now know how to aim.

 

[pilot error]

I just won this on eBay . The seller said it was part of an estate sale in the '70s. It was in a frame and they didn't know what it was.

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[Ralph_Phillips]

Thanks Pilot Error...have just snagged myself a copy from eBay, I wasn't aware of this film before this post

There is also a book written on that mission by I believe Ted Lawson, who was the pilot in command of the Ruptured Duck on the 1942 Tokyo raid off of the USS Hornet.